There’s nothing quite like passing along your love for the great outdoors to your children. But when that shared love involves bending, twisting or outright disregarding the laws, you’re doing it wrong.
Such was the case for Ronald Shubert and his son Chad after a recent trip to beautiful Montana. It was there that the Belleville, Michigan residents set out to chase bull elk as a once in a lifetime bonding opportunity that has quickly turned into a nightmare for the paternal duo. With warrants released for their arrests this week following a string of wildlife violations in Treasure County, the pair now find themselves in hot water.
According to Montana’s FWP, the investigation into the father-son duo kicked off after they received a tip from the Rosebud County Sheriff’s Office. As per the information, the Sheriff’s Office was made aware that Chad had allegedly shot and killed a trophy bull elk in Hunting District 702 without a valid permit. With that information in hand, game warden Kyle Queer investigated the case and soon got the confirmation he needed about the allegations. Digging deeper into the case, game wardens soon found that the elk was taken on private land without permission, was killed with a rifle during archery season and the majority of the meat was left to rot in the field.
Game wardens later found out that while Ronald didn’t pull the trigger on the elk, he was present with his son the whole time and helped remove the head and antlers of the animal and knowingly left the meat to waste.
In light of the investigation, the two men have since each been charged with felony unlawful possession of a trophy bull elk. Chad, the shooter, has also has been charged with an additional felony for tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, as well as four misdemeanor charges for hunting during a closed season, failure to obtain landowner permission for hunting, waste of a game animal, and violation of a commission or department rule for failure to return to a kill site.
In addition to the charges from the elk killing, Chad is also up against additional pending charges for violations related to the hunting of deer, antelope, turkeys and mountain lions in Rosebud County. Dad, on the other hand, is also facing charges of misdemeanor criminal trespass to property.
In total, these boys could face more than $60,000 worth of fines and restitution for the illegal killing, jail time and the obvious loss of hunting and fishing privileges.
